Your absolute monarch doesn’t need those things. He’d proudly state “l’état c’est moi” if he was able to.

Guess US-companies don’t really care what’s legal and what’s not. They don’t fear the repercussions of doing illegal shit. They just pay their fine - or they don’t and nothing changes.

epic sound track

That’s the one thing where I would raise an objection. An epic soundtrack is that one thing that adds to the experience more than fancy graphics or overly complicated game mechanics. Epic doesn’t necessarily mean expensive. Monkey Island had phantastic soundtracks, as well as other older games like The Settlers 2, early Anno games etc. They just set a mood. They supported their narratives. That was good stuff - and I guess you might now be able to extrapolate how old I am.

GOAT

it’s that one game I have on each device I own and carry around alongside AD1503

NFS 4 was the last one I thoroughly enjoyed. Porsche Unleashed was nice too but way different. But the series from NFSII-SE to PU was what I played with friends from elementary school after we got home so it’s a key memory for me and I might be biased.

Gaming back then was just different. The games from that era are the only ones I regularly come back to even after it’s been almost 30 years.